UB Shale Institute Controversy: Review and Updates

By Steve Horn ~ 

Frackademia: Controversial SUNY Buffalo Shale Institute's Reputation Unraveling (via Desmogblog)

A storm is brewing in Buffalo and it's not the record snow storm typically associated with upstate New York. Rather, it's taking place in the ivory tower of academia and revolves around hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," for unconventional gas in the Marcellus Shale basin.  Public funding has…

CLIMATE CHANGE: What Can and Should We Do Now?

7:30 p.m., Monday, October 15

Daemen College

4380 Main Street, Amherst

Room 336, Duns Scotus Hall

Free and Open to the Public

Keynote speaker

Ross Gould, Energy & Air Program Director, Environmental Advocates of New York (www.eany.org)

Panelists

• Bob Berger, UB Law Professor (retired)
• Samantha Legros, Business  Major/Sustainability Minor, Daemen  College
• Terry Yonker, Chair, Energy & Climate Task Force, WNY Environmental Alliance

Moderator

• Walter Simpson, energy educator & activist, Daemen College Instructor (www.energyreallymatters.com)

Printable Flyer & Map: click here.

Scientists have known for decades that climate change is real and potentially catastrophic yet to a large extent we – as a society - have ignored and denied the problem and done little about it.  This panel discussion will present a positive statewide and national climate protection policy and activist agenda.  It will also address these questions:  Have we waited too long to protect the future for our children and avoid the worst consequences of climate change?  Is effective action -- proportionate to the threat we face -- possible given ongoing political conflict in our country and the power for fossil fuel interests?  What should those who understand the danger and care about the future be doing now?

This panel discussion is presented as part of the Alternative & Renewable Energy Issues course in Daemen's Global & Sustainability program.  For information on this exciting new major and minor, visit www.daemen.edu/sustainability.  For more information, wsimpson@daemen.edu or 839-0062.

PUBLIC MEETINGS: WNY Regional Sustainability Plan

The Conversation Continues: The Western New York Regional Sustainability Planning Team is seeking your input on projects that will make our region more sustainable.

Five Western New York counties are working together to create a plan to build a more sustainable region.

Over the last several months, we’ve used your input to create integrated solutions for land use, energy, transportation, infrastructure and environmental practices to improve our quality of life now, and for generations to come. The draft Western New York Regional Sustainability Plan will soon be available at www.sustainable-ny.com.

Ultimately, the Plan will:

-	Plan for energy production and conservation, transportation, waste and water management, land use and livable communities, agriculture and forestry, economic development and open space;
-	Build upon Regional Economic Development planning efforts to integrate plans for economic prosperity with efforts to promote long-term sustainability;
-	Identify indicators to measure our progress, including GHG emissions and energy use, available natural resources and economic assets, liabilities and opportunities; and
-	Describe projects that may apply for implementation funding from various funding sources including the NYSERDA Cleaner Greener Communities program.

The planning team invites your ideas and feedback on implementation projects that can help meet the region’s goals for sustainability.

You may submit project ideas via: www.sustainable-ny.com/form or by attending the public meeting most convenient for you:

Monday, October 15, 2012, 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Millennium Hotel, Cleveland Room
2040 Walden Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14225

Thursday, October 18, 2012, 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Jamestown Community College, Weeks Reception Hall
525 Falconer Street, Jamestown, NY 14702

Tuesday, October 23, 2012, 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Niagara County Community College, Humanities and Social Sciences Building, Room E142
3111 Saunders Settlement Road, Sanborn, NY 14132

Thursday, October 25, 2012, 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Moonwinks Restaurant
9302 Jackson Hill Road, Cuba, NY 14727

The project is funded by a grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority as a part of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Cleaner, Greener Communities Program. The participating counties are Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie and Niagara. The planning team is led by Allegany County, with support from Southern Tier West Regional Planning and Development Board, Ecology and Environment, Inc., and the University at Buffalo Regional Institute.
To learn more about the project or to submit feedback via email, please visit www.sustainable-ny.com.
To view a copy of the Newspaper Ad please go here: Sustainable Fall Public Meeting Ad
For questions about the project or the upcoming public meetings, please contact Elizabeth Santacrose (Ecology and Environment) at (716) 684-8060.

CONFERENCE: World On Your Plate - Friday & Saturday

Click Image to Enlarge 

 

World on Your Plate Conference on Food and Sustainable Living is this Friday, October 12th 7pm-9:30pm and Saturday, October 13th, 9:00am-5:00pm.

• Bring your children!  There is a FREE Youth Conference for ages 8-15. 
• Wonderful vegetarian lunch from produce donated by area farmers.
• Speakers:  Brendan Brazier, triathlete and expert on plant based diet, and Mark Kastel, farm policy and organics
• over 17 workshops on  yoga, GMOs, herbs, gluten-free diet, bees, hops, farm workers, & many more!
• Networking and light snacks 5:00-6:00, Alex Worthling Quartet
• Over 20 information tables
• For more information, www.worldonyourplate.org or call 716-839-8524

Professors, Students To Confront University Administration Over UB Shale Institute

Over 600 UB Professors, Students, Staff and Community Members Have Signed a Petition Calling on UB to Increase Transparency

WHO: UB CLEAR (Coalition for Leading Ethically in Academic Research)

WHAT: Question and answer session with UB Administration where UB CLEAR members will confront UB Administration over the UB Shale Institute (Shale Resources and Society Institute)

WHERE: UB North Campus - Center For Tomorrow Building - Near Flint Rd. Entrance off Maple Rd - Directions

WHEN: Tuesday October 2^nd at 3:00 pm

WHY:  Since the UB Shale Institute issued its first report in May, significant questions have been raised about its funding, founding and potential conflicts-of-interest. On September 12, the SUNY Board of Trustees passed a resolution requiring the UB Administration to provide information about the Shale Institute. Despite a September 27 deadline, no information has been made public.

Contact: Prof. Jim Holstun, 884-0895

Solar & Green Building Tour of WNY

On Saturday, October 13, 2012, over 1500 people from across WNY will experience the Solar & Green Building Tour, an annual event held by the Western New York Sustainable Energy Association (WNYSEA). With over 25 sites open across the region, for one day only, attendees will have an opportunity to learn about solar, geothermal, energy efficiency, net zero houses, green roofs, bale on bale construction, LEED buildings and adaptive reuse of historic buildings and more.
 
This event is an open house, not a guided tour. All sites are open on October 13 from 10am – 4pm unless noted otherwise. The event is free, open to the public and no registration is required.  A full list of sites in the Buffalo area is Here.

Awards Ceremony: WNYSEA will be kicking off the annual event with an awards ceremony at 9:30am, on Saturday, October 13 at Hispanics United of Buffalo – 254 Virginia Street on Buffalo’s West Side. WNYSEA will give its annual leadership award to both the University at Buffalo and Hispanics United for their efforts in promoting renewable technologies in our region. The public is welcome to attend. Rita Yelda, Director of WNY Drilling Defense, and Erin Heaney, Executive Director of the Clean Air Coalition of WNY will both receive WNYSEA Individual Leadership awards for their great work in Environmental Stewardship.

How Burning Coal Harms Human Health

Coal kills. That's the message of "The Silent Epidemic: Coal and the Hidden Threat to Health" by Alan H. Lockwood, MD, University at Buffalo emeritus professor of neurology.

Lockwood says "Coal is a major contributing factor to the top four causes of death in the U.S.: cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease and stroke, but I think people are completely unaware that pollution from coal is responsible for huge numbers of deaths." 

The book examines how coal is a factor in each of these diseases. Additional chapters examine the science, politics and economics of coal burning and global warming.

Dr. Lockwood discusses his new book in the brief video below:

Burning coal provides the energy to generate nearly half of the electricity in the nation. "The worst health effects of coal are felt by residents of states in the Northeastern U.S., east of the Mississippi, where most coal is burned and where the power plants are the oldest," says Lockwood.

Coal burning causes disease through two main mechanisms, Lockwood explains: through the inflammatory response that inhaled particulate matter triggers in the body and through the penetration into the brain of inhaled particulate matter. 

The press release from the University at Buffalo is here.

SUNY Trustees Require Investigation of UB Shale Institute

Board concerned about formation and funding of Institute, errors in its first report, and misrepresentation that it was peer reviewed

~ By David Kowalski and Jim Holstun ~

The SUNY Board of Trustees met in New York City on Wednesday, September 12, 2012. 

We wondered whether the Trustees would discuss the controversial Shale Resources and Society Institute (a.k.a., UB Shale Institute) created under the aegis of the University at Buffalo. Recently, 83 UB faculty and professional staff sent a letter to the university administration seeking  transparency on the Shale Institute. They urged the administration to make public all the documents that bear upon the founding, funding, staffing, operation and governance of the institute. Additionally, the New Yorkers Against Fracking announced a protest to be held outside the Board of Trustees meeting to push SUNY to stop supporting the industry-friendly Institute.

Live Webcasts of several different committee meetings were available online. We watched the meeting of the Research and Economic Development Committee.

Dr. Tim Killeen, the new President of the SUNY Research Foundation and former Assistant Director of Geosciences at the National Science Foundation, gave a presentation to the committee entitled "Advancing the SUNY Innovation Ecosystem." He indicated that there is great potential in collaborating with industry in New York. Killeen said that stimulating collaborative partnerships with industry is very important. He added that it has to be two-way, and has to be done with full integrity and ethical commitments.

Following a discussion of the presentation, Marshall Lichtman, acting chair of the committee, moved on to other business. Although the UB Shale Institute was not listed on the agenda, the discussion turned out to be devoted entirely to the Shale Institute and the University at Buffalo.

Below are excerpts from the committee's discussion:

Trustee Ronald G. Ehrenberg said "the whole issue of fracking research at Buffalo has sort of led to concerns about what policies we have in place regarding accountability and conflict of interest and conflict of commitment in terms of research." He added "Economists got into a lot of problems because a lot of people testifying or writing papers on financial regulation turned out were paid consultants to companies, and they never released that." He recommended convening the vice presidents for research at the different campuses and discussing the issues.

Trustee Joseph W. Belluck, speaking to Dr. Killeen, said "what happened in Buffalo threatens to undermine everything in your presentation, every single last bit of it." Belluck said "And what happened, and it was laid out very clearly in an NPR story that you can get on Google, is that there was a conference at Buffalo, and following the conference, an employee of a natural gas company sat down with people at the University at Buffalo and suggested to them that they set up an institute to research fracking, suggested to them that they hire a colleague of his who is a consultant to the energy industry, someone with very little academic credentials, if any, and suggested to them if they put out an article that was favorable, that they would attract additional resources from the gas industry."

"They then put out a report. They misrepresented that it was peer reviewed. As you and I have discussed, it’s the core principle of academic research, peer review. They misrepresented that. It was not peer reviewed. They misrepresented that reviewers who had read it supported the conclusions. And the Chancellor went on a television, a radio program, and asked UB to respond, and to explain what went on, take responsibility for it. And they really haven’t."

Speaking forcefully, Belluck continued "But this thing at UB, in my view, it has to be shut down. And I would like to bring a motion to the Board today that we call on Buffalo to shut this institute down. Because I don’t think that this is an academic institute. The faculty at Buffalo are upset about it because it was not set up with the rigors that an academic institute was set up for. We now have protestors coming today. It’s all over Google News. And I think it threatens to undermine us as a first-class research institute."

Environmental Protection and Economic Growth

We can reduce pollution, protect health, create jobs and grow our economy

If there's one issue that hasn't been talked about enough in this election, it's the environment.

Yet the difference between the parties is stark: Republicans want to cut the EPA and weaken vital environmental protections like the Clean Air and Clean Water Act, laws that ensure millions of Americans can safely breath our air and drink our water.

But the parties were not always so polarized on environmental issues. What's behind the push to weaken environmental protections? Watch the video to see. 

Video: Those interviewed include WNY native Jason Kowalski, Policy Director at 350.org in Washington DC; David Doniger from the Natural Resources Defense Council; Joe Mendelson, director of global warming policy at the National Wildlife Federation; and Rep. Raul Grijalva (AZ-7).